Harvey Jackson deals with his conscience

In an article about Egas Moniz, author João Sodré criticised Portuguese psychiatrists who try to justify leucotomy with claims that it is more humane than ECT. They are not the only ones. British neurosurgeon Harvey Jackson describes in 1954 how he overcame his doubts about leucotomies:

"When originally I undertook to perform leucotomy it was not without a feeling rather of reproach, for mutilation no doubt it must be. However I first of all went to watch my psychiatrist colleagues applying chemical or electric convulsive therapy - so disturbing was the exhibition at the time that thereupon I decided that the surgical approach was probably a less traumatic measure."

And American neurosurgeon William Beecher Scoville felt that psychosurgery "is preferred to shock treatment in those depressions requiring more than short courses of shock treatment because of less emotional blunting, memory loss and relapses."